My much used, dog-eared “Chinese Village Cookbook” is testimony to many a great meal prepared from its easy-to-follow recipes. Author Rhoda Yee had chosen well, engaging photographer Spaulding Taylor to illustrate the day-to-day lives of the folks in her native village, Loan Gon Doan. Ms. Yee and Mr. Spaulding began their professional relationship in San Francisco, after her graduation from the University of California at Berkeley.
Ms. Yee and her husband, who shares her love of cooking, have prepared many scrumptious meals for family and friends at their home in Walnut Creek, Calif. And the photographer’s illustrations reflect fact, humanism, and fancy, doing justice to the easy-to-follow recipes in the book.
Anecdotes about village life are a charming adjunct to this “Cantonese Cooking Bible.” My favorite and often-prepared recipe, what my Chinese friends call comfort food, is a thick rice soup that Yee calls “joak.”
The book provides an excellent glossary of Chinese cooking terms, illustrates simple but indispensable kitchen utensils, and ends with a list of Chinese ingredients that make these recipes come to life.
The book is a soft-cover version, published by Random House, Inc.; Library of Congress Card 75-18964; ISBN 394-73152-2.
As the dedication states: “To all lovers of Chinese food, long live the wok!”
